James Fleet in Habaes Corpus
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Tours: Keith Is Entertaining, Bath's Godot & Habeas

Two productions from this summer’s annual regional repertory seasons – Chichester Festival’s Entertaining Angels starring Penelope Keith (See News, 9 May 2006), and Sir Peter Hall’s Theatre Royal Bath revival of Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus (See News, 8 Feb 2006) - will launch tours in the coming weeks. In addition, Hall’s 50th anniversary revival of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, whose West End transfer was blocked following its run at Bath last summer (See News, 16 Aug 2005), will be resurrected for three new regional dates.

In Entertaining Angels, Keith play’s vicar’s wife Grace. After many years of being on her best behaviour - and personally baking two tons of light crust pastry - the death of Grace’s much-loved husband gives her the freedom to do and say exactly what she pleases. Keith previously appeared at Chichester in The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Importance of Being Earnest and Relatively Speaking and was last seen in the West End in Blithe Spirit in 2004.

Alan Strachan directs Richard Everett’s new comedy, which ran in Chichester from 5 to 27 May 2006. On 5 September 2006, the production will reopen at Richmond prior to visiting Brighton, Woking, Malvern, Milton Keynes, Windsor and Bath, where it concludes its tour on 28 October 2006.

Just opened at Bath as part of Peter Hall’s annual repertory season, Habeas Corpus continues there until 12 August 2006 before immediately continuing to Plymouth, Malvern, Glasgow, Salford, Brighton and Poole until 30 September. James Fleet (pictured) stars in Hall’s new production of the 1973 play by Alan Bennett, still riding high from his continued international success with 2004’s The History Boys, which last month added six Tonys to its bulging awards chest (See News, 12 Jun 2006).

Habeas Corpus explores permissiveness in 1960s Brighton through a maze of mistaken identities and sexual encounters. Fleet’s credits include Mary Stuart, Three Sisters, Art, The Late Middle Classes on stage, and Charlotte Gray, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sense and Sensibility on screen.

Beckett’s Waiting for Godot was the final production in Hall’s Bath season last summer. The director had hoped to bring the production to the West End’s Arts Theatre, where he directed the English-language world premiere in 1955 when he was the theatre’s 25-year-old artistic director. However, a clash over the proposed transfer led to a very public spat between Hall and directors at the Barbican Centre and Dublin’s Gate Theatre, who jointly held the London rights for their Beckett centenary festival earlier this year (See News, 17 Mar 2006).

In Waiting for Godot, two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, are waiting on a deserted road. As they pass the time, they ask the question: “Will Mr Godot ever come?”. In the National Theatre’s NT2000 poll, theatre professionals voted Waiting for Godot the most significant English language play of the 20th century.

This year, Hall’s production of Beckett’s modern masterpiece will open on 4 September 2006 back at the Theatre Royal Bath and will then visit Oxford and Richmond, finishing on 30 September 2006. James Laurenson and Alan Dobie reprise their 2005 Bath performances as Vladimir and Estragon, with Richard Dormer as Lucky and Terence Rigby as Pozzo.

- by Terri Paddock

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